Donald Trump has made a lot of excuses for having kept boxes and boxes of material removed from the White House after many requests and demands to return them.
Now, he’s moved on to claiming that he just had lots of empty folders as souvenirs, and suggesting that if there are documents in them, “Trump-hating Marxist thugs” must have planted them.
Trump’s new three-post rant on Truth Social describes how he came into possession of so many empty folders, saying that after he reviewed classified documents, he would return the contents but keep the folder.
He says that he deemed them a “cool keepsake.”
He goes on to imply that any documents found in classified folders at his residence must have been planted by the agents carrying out the search and the investigation.
He also claims that the U.S. Government — or, as he calls it, “the Gestapo” — could be counting the folders themselves as documents.
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How many times during Trump’s time as President of the United States, and since, has he declared, “I did nothing wrong?” Probably too many to track — but whatever the number, his rant adds one new repetition of the mantra, with a new twist: he now adds “Joe did!” after his denial. Trump claimed:
“Perhaps the Gestapo took some of these empty folders when they Raided Mar-a-Lago, & counted them as a document, which they are not. It’s also possible that the Trump Hating Marxist Thugs in charge will ‘plant’ documents while they’re in possession of the material.”
This directly clashes with Trump’s previous favorite excuse.
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He’s claimed that he declassified all the documents held at Mar-a-Lago, which is a borderline admission that there were documents — presumably he wasn’t claiming to have declassified hundreds of “ordinary inexpensive folders with various words printed on them.”
It also directly contradicts the inventory that was unsealed back in September, which lists empty folders — 43 with “classified” banners and 28 with the label “return to Staff Secretary/Military Aide” in a box in his office, and about 20 more total across the boxes retrieved from the storage room — separately from documents.
Every single item removed is listed with its location, including a number identifying what box it was in.
Aside from the empty folders, the inventory lists literally thousands of government documents and photographs.
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Most of those are described as “without classification markings,” but included are 7 documents labeled “TOP SECRET,” 17 labeled “SECRET,” and 3 labeled “CONFIDENTIAL” in his office alone.
Dozens more are listed in the boxes in his storage room.
It’s also worth remembering that it does not matter if the documents Trump had were classified, as the judge in the case explained, per the New York Times:
“Even if Mr. Trump had in fact declassified the records, the judges wrote, he was still bound by federal law, including the Presidential Records Act, that required him to return all government documents, classified or unclassified, when he left office. Declassifying an official document would not alone ‘render it personal’ or turn it into a possession he could hold onto after leaving office, the court said.”
He’s also complaining (again) that the current President, who has cooperated with authorities and turned over documents immediately without a fight, is being treated differently than he was when he refused for months to do as asked and return documents that are deemed government property.
You can read the full rant below, followed by screenshots.
Page 1: The Fake News Media & Crooked Democrats (That’s been proven!) keep saying I had a “large number of documents” in order to make the Biden Classified Docs look less significant. When I was in the Oval Office, or elsewhere, & “papers” were distributed to groups of people & me, they would often be in a striped paper folder with “Classified” or “Confidential” or another word on them. When the session was over, they would collect the paper(s), but not the folders, & I saved hundreds of them…
Page 2: Remember, these were just ordinary, inexpensive folders with various words printed on them, but they were a “cool” keepsake. Perhaps the Gestapo took some of these empty folders when they Raided Mar-a-Lago, & counted them as a document, which they are not. It’s also possible that the Trump Hating Marxist Thugs in charge will “plant” documents while they’re in possession of the material. As President, and based on the Presidential Records Act & Socks Case, I did NOTHING WRONG. JOE DID!
Page 3: Biden is being treated smuch better than me, I’m shocked (not really!). Why aren’t they raiding his house, & how come his representatives and lawyers are allowed to work together with the Gestopo in looking for documents, when my lawyers & representatives were not allowed anywhere near the search. We weren’t even allowed to know what they took when they raided my home. “Please leave the premises,” they said, & then lugged out everything they could, including my Passports & Med Recs.
